Are Social Media Campaigns Worth It?

Emily MacNair - January 4, 2012

This is a question that many companies raise as they manage the day-to-day Facebook posts, tweets, blogs, etc.  It’s a full-time job for large companies, and for smaller companies it often falls to the marketing department to manage or “test” to see its effectiveness.

While measuring results of every single post isn’t always possible, many studies point to the fact that social media is in fact valuable for brands.

eMarketer recently published data from a study about the immediate and prolonged results of social media campaigns.  What they found is quite astounding.

• After exposure to a social media campaign, the likelihood someone would recommend a product increased to 61% (up from 39% pre-exposure to the campaign).
• One year after being exposed to the campaign, their likelihood of recommending a product remained elevated at 55%.
• An individual’s purchase intent after being exposed to a social media campaign increased to 69% (up from 38% pre-exposure to the campaign).
• A year later the purchase intent was still as high as 61%!

More about this study can be found here. This data clearly indicates the importance of social media marketing and the profound impact that it can have on word of mouth marketing (via recommendations) and purchase intent.

Your company should be participating in social media, if you’re not already.  And if you are already participating, you should be developing social media campaigns.  Too many companies simply post content on a daily basis, with little thought to their overall goal.  Social media campaigns should be created throughout the year to coincide with your other marketing efforts (online and offline).  You should focus on creating meaningful campaigns – ones that will be remembered and shared.  They could include giveaways, contests and/or user generated content.  Social media lends itself to engage with potential customers and companies should leverage this it to its fullest potential.